Personalized emergency alert

ABSTRACT

Techniques are described for expanding and/or improving the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television protocol in robustly delivering the next generation broadcast television services. Reverse 911 emergency alerts are personalized to a user of each receiver in the ATSC 3.0 system.

FIELD

This application relates to technical advances necessarily rooted incomputer technology and directed to digital television, and moreparticularly to Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0.

BACKGROUND

The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 suite of standardsis a set of over a dozen industry technical standards as indicated in“ATSC 3.0 System” (A/300) for delivering the next generation ofbroadcast television. ATSC 3.0 supports delivery of a wide range oftelevision services including televised video, interactive services,non-real time delivery of data, and tailored advertising to a largenumber of receiving devices, from ultra-high definition televisions towireless telephones. ATSC 3.0 also orchestrates coordination betweenbroadcast content (referred to as “over the air”) and related broadbanddelivered content and services (referred to as “over the top”). ATSC 3.0is designed to be flexible so that as technology evolves, advances canbe readily incorporated without requiring a complete overhaul of anyrelated technical standard. Present principles are directed to suchadvances as divulged below.

SUMMARY

As understood herein, ATSC 3.0 provides for emergency alerts. However,emergency alerts are monolithic and provide very little informationregarding the scope and imminence or the instant danger, etc.

Accordingly, present principles provide an ATSC 3.0-based emergencyalert system that provides personalized information regarding animminent threat. This information can include an amount of time beforethe threat is life threatening, identification and directions to anearest shelter, and an automatic booking of the user into the safesthotel nearest the user's receiver. The receiver in response to the alertmay contact the emergency alert (broadcaster) server to provideadditional information. If the user is not present as indicated by lackof an acknowledgement input to the receiver, the system may attempt tolocate the user via a GPS location of the user's phone and call theuser.

A digital television apparatus includes at least one transmitterassembly with at least one processor programmed with instructions toaccess respective location information for respective first and secondreceivers indicating respective first and second locations. Theinstructions are executable to broadcast an emergency alert altered atleast in part with the location information such that the first receiverpresents first information in the emergency alert and the secondreceiver presents second information in the emergency alert differentfrom the first information.

The first receiver may not present the second information. Further, thefirst receiver may be configured to contact the second receiver viaother distribution methods (for example, internet communication) and notrely on the transmitter containing user information.

In example embodiments, the first information includes one or more itemsin an amount of time before a threat subject to the emergency alert islife threatening at the first location, an identification and directionsto a shelter nearest the first location, and notification of anautomatic booking of a user into a hotel nearest the first location. Inexample implementations the transmitter instructions may be executableto, responsive to not receiving, within a period, an acknowledgement ofthe reverse 911 emergency alert from the first receiver, accessinformation associated with the first receiver to identify a phonenumber and call the phone number.

Generally, an emergency alert, sometimes referred to as a “reverse 911”,refers to a public safety communications technology used by publicsafety organizations to communicate with groups of people in a definedgeographic area. The system uses a database of end user identifyinginformation including end user receiver information in conjunction withgeographic information to deliver emergency notifications to a selectedset of service subscribers. According to A/300, features of an emergencyalert (sometimes referred to as a “reverse 911”) appear in severaldocuments within the ATSC 3.0 suite of standards which are listed inA/300.

In another aspect, a digital television system includes digitaltelevision transmitter equipment configured with instructions togenerate a first emergency alert tailored to a first location in anemergency alert coverage area. The first emergency alert indicates afirst emergency. The transmitter equipment is further configured togenerate a second emergency alert tailored to a second location in theemergency alert coverage area, with the second emergency alertindicating the first emergency and containing information different frominformation in the first emergency alert. The transmitting equipment isconfigured to transmit the first emergency alert to a first receiver atthe first location, and to transmit the second emergency alert to asecond receiver at the second location.

In another aspect, in a digital television system, a method includestransmitting a first alert of a first emergency to a first receiver. Thefirst alert contains information identified at least in part based on afirst location associated with the first receiver. The method furtherincludes transmitting a second alert of the first emergency to a secondreceiver, with the second alert containing information identified atleast in part based on a second location associated with the secondreceiver.

The details of the present application, both as to its structure andoperation, can best be understood in reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and inwhich:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an Advanced Television Systems Committee(ATSC) 3.0 system;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing components of the devices shown inFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of example logic consistent with presentprinciples;

FIG. 4 is a screen shot of an example emergency alert presented on areceiver;

FIG. 5 is a screen shot of an example UI for establishing userinformation;

FIG. 6 is a screen shot of an example UI for selecting events to benotified of/acted upon; and

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating example receiver logic on animplementation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure relates to technical advances in digital television suchas in Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 television. Anexample system herein may include ATSC 3.0 source components and clientcomponents, connected via broadcast and/or over a network such that datamay be exchanged between the client and ATSC 3.0 source components. Theclient components may include one or more computing devices includingportable televisions (e.g. smart TVs, Internet-enabled TVs), portablecomputers such as laptops and tablet computers, and other mobile devicesincluding smart phones and additional examples discussed below. Theseclient devices may operate with a variety of operating environments. Forexample, some of the client computers may employ, as examples, operatingsystems from Microsoft, or a Unix operating system, or operating systemsproduced by Apple Computer or Google, such as Android®. These operatingenvironments may be used to execute one or more browsing programs, suchas a browser made by Microsoft or Google or Mozilla or other browserprogram that can access websites hosted by the Internet serversdiscussed below.

ATSC 3.0 source components may include broadcast transmission componentsand servers and/or gateways that may include one or more processorsexecuting instructions that configure the source components to broadcastdata and/or to transmit data over a network such as the Internet. Aclient component and/or a local ATSC 3.0 source component may beinstantiated by a game console such as a Sony PlayStation®, a personalcomputer, etc.

Information may be exchanged over a network between the clients andservers. To this end and for security, servers and/or clients caninclude firewalls, load balancers, temporary storages, and proxies, andother network infrastructure for reliability and security.

As used herein, instructions refer to computer-implemented steps forprocessing information in the system. Instructions can be implemented insoftware, firmware or hardware and include any type of programmed stepundertaken by components of the system.

A processor may be any conventional general-purpose single- ormulti-chip processor that can execute logic by means of various linessuch as address lines, data lines, and control lines and registers andshift registers.

Software modules described by way of the flow charts and user interfacesherein can include various sub-routines, procedures, etc. Withoutlimiting the disclosure, logic stated to be executed by a particularmodule can be redistributed to other software modules and/or combinedtogether in a single module and/or made available in a shareablelibrary. While flow chart format may be used, it is to be understoodthat software may be implemented as a state machine or other logicalmethod.

Present principles described herein can be implemented as hardware,software, firmware, or combinations thereof; hence, illustrativecomponents, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps are set forth in termsof their functionality.

Further to what has been alluded to above, logical blocks, modules, andcircuits can be implemented or performed with a general-purposeprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gatearray (FPGA) or other programmable logic device such as an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), discrete gate or transistor logic,discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed toperform the functions described herein. A processor can be implementedby a controller or state machine or a combination of computing devices.

The functions and methods described below, when implemented in software,can be written in an appropriate language such as but not limited tohypertext markup language (HTML)-5, Java/JavaScript, C# or C++, and canbe stored on or transmitted through a computer-readable storage mediumsuch as a random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), compactdisk read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disk storage such asdigital versatile disc (DVD), magnetic disk storage or other magneticstorage devices including removable thumb drives, etc. A connection mayestablish a computer-readable medium. Such connections can include, asexamples, hard-wired cables including fiber optics and coaxial wires anddigital subscriber line (DSL) and twisted pair wires.

Components included in one embodiment can be used in other embodimentsin any appropriate combination. For example, any of the variouscomponents described herein and/or depicted in the Figures may becombined, interchanged or excluded from other embodiments.

“A system having at least one of A, B, and C” (likewise “a system havingat least one of A, B, or C” and “a system having at least one of A, B,C”) includes systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and Ctogether, etc.

Turning to FIG. 1, an example of an ATSC 3.0 source component is labeled“broadcaster equipment” 10 and may include over-the-air (OTA) equipment12 for wirelessly broadcasting, typically via orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) in a one-to-many relationship, televisiondata to plural receivers 14 such as ATSC 3.0 televisions. One or morereceivers 14 may communicate with one or more companion devices 16 suchas remote controls, tablet computers, mobile telephones, and the likeover a short range, typically wireless link 18 that may be implementedby Bluetooth®, low energy Bluetooth, other near field communication(NFC) protocol, infrared (IR), etc.

Also, one or more of the receivers 14 may communicate, via a wiredand/or wireless network link 20 such as the Internet, with over-the-top(OTT) equipment 22 of the broadcaster equipment 10 typically in aone-to-one relationship. The OTA equipment 12 may be co-located with theOTT equipment 22 or the two sides 12, 22 of the broadcaster equipment 10may be remote from each other and may communicate with each otherthrough appropriate means. In any case, a receiver 14 may receive ATSC3.0 television signals OTA over a tuned-to ATSC 3.0 television channeland may also receive related content, including television, OTT(broadband). Note that computerized devices described in all of thefigures herein may include some or all of the components set forth forvarious devices in FIGS. 1 and 2.

Referring now to FIG. 2, details of examples of components shown in FIG.1 may be seen. FIG. 2 illustrates an example protocol stack that may beimplemented by a combination of hardware and software. Using the ATSC3.0 protocol stack shown in FIG. 2 and modified as appropriate for thebroadcaster side, broadcasters can send hybrid service delivery in whichone or more program elements are delivered via a computer network(referred to herein as “broadband” and “over-the-top” (OTT)) as well asvia a wireless broadcast (referred to herein as “broadcast” and“over-the-air” (OTA)). FIG. 2 also illustrates an example stack withhardware that may be embodied by a receiver.

Disclosing FIG. 2 in terms of broadcaster equipment 10, one or moreprocessors 200 accessing one or more computer storage media 202 such asany memories or storages described herein may be implemented to provideone or more software applications in a top-level application layer 204.The application layer 204 can include one or more software applicationswritten in, e.g., HTML5/JavaScript running in a runtime environment.Without limitation, the applications in the application stack 204 mayinclude linear TV applications, interactive service applications,companion screen applications, personalization applications, emergencyalert applications, and usage reporting applications. The applicationstypically are embodied in software that represents the elements that theviewer experiences, including video coding, audio coding and therun-time environment. As an example, an application may be provided thatenables a user to control dialog, use alternate audio tracks, controlaudio parameters such as normalization and dynamic range, and so on.

Below the application layer 204 is a presentation layer 206. Thepresentation layer 206 includes, on the broadcast (OTA) side, broadcastaudio-video playback devices referred to as Media Processing Units (MPU)208 that, when implemented in a receiver, decode and playback, on one ormore displays and speakers, wirelessly broadcast audio video content.The MPU 208 is configured to present International Organization forStandardization (ISO) base media file format (BMFF) data representations210 and video in high efficiency video coding (HEVC) with audio in,e.g., Dolby audio compression (AC)-4 format. ISO BMFF is a general filestructure for time-based media files broken into “segments” andpresentation metadata. Each of the files is essentially a collection ofnested objects each with a type and a length. To facilitate decryption,the MPU 208 may access a broadcast side encrypted media extension(EME)/common encryption (CENC) module 212.

FIG. 2 further illustrates that on the broadcast side the presentationlayer 206 may include signaling modules, including either motionpictures expert group (MPEG) media transport protocol (MMTP) signalingmodule 214 or real-time object delivery over unidirectional transport(ROUTE) signaling module 216 for delivering non-real time (NRT) content218 that is accessible to the application layer 204. NRT content mayinclude but is not limited to stored replacement advertisements.

On the broadband (OTT or computer network) side, when implemented by areceiver the presentation layer 206 can include one or more dynamicadaptive streaming over hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) (DASH)player/decoders 220 for decoding and playing audio-video content fromthe Internet. To this end the DASH player 220 may access a broadbandside EME/CENC module 222. The DASH content may be provided as DASHsegments 224 in ISO/BMFF format.

As was the case for the broadcast side, the broadband side of thepresentation layer 206 may include NRT content in files 226 and may alsoinclude signaling objects 228 for providing play back signaling.

Below the presentation layer 206 in the protocol stack is a sessionlayer 230. The session layer 230 includes, on the broadcast side, eitherMMTP protocol 232 or ROUTE protocol 234.

On the broadband side the session layer 230 includes HTTP protocol 236which may be implemented as HTTP-secure (HTTP(S). The broadcast side ofthe session layer 230 also may employ a HTTP proxy module 238 and aservice list table (SLT) 240. The SLT 240 includes a table of signalinginformation which is used to build a basic service listing and providebootstrap discovery of the broadcast content. Media presentationdescriptions (MPD) are included in the “ROUTE Signaling” tablesdelivered over user datagram protocol (UDP) by the ROUTE transportprotocol.

A transport layer 242 is below the session layer 230 in the protocolstack for establishing low-latency and loss-tolerating connections. Onthe broadcast side the transport layer 242 uses (UDP 244 and on thebroadband side transmission control protocol (TCP) 246.

The example non-limiting protocol stack shown in FIG. 2 also includes anetwork layer 248 below the transport layer 242. The network layer 248uses Internet protocol (IP) on both sides for IP packet communication,with multicast delivery being typical on the broadcast side and unicastbeing typical on the broadband side.

Below the network layer 248 is the physical layer 250 which includesbroadcast transmission/receive equipment 252 and computer networkinterface(s) 254 for communicating on the respective physical mediaassociated with the two sides. The physical layer 250 converts InternetProtocol (IP) packets to be suitable to be transported over the relevantmedium and may add forward error correction functionality to enableerror correction at the receiver as well as contain modulation anddemodulation modules to incorporate modulation and demodulationfunctionalities. This converts bits into symbols for long distancetransmission as well as to increase bandwidth efficiency. On the OTAside the physical layer 250 typically includes a wireless broadcasttransmitter to broadcast data wirelessly using orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) while on the OTT side the physical layer250 includes computer transmission components to send data over theInternet.

A DASH Industry Forum (DASH-IF) profile sent through the variousprotocols (HTTP/TCP/IP) in the protocol stack may be used on thebroadband side. Media files in the DASH-IF profile based on the ISO BMFFmay be used as the delivery, media encapsulation and synchronizationformat for both broadcast and broadband delivery.

Each receiver 14 typically includes a protocol stack that iscomplementary to that of the broadcaster equipment.

A receiver 14 in FIG. 1 may include, as shown in FIG. 2, anInternet-enabled TV with an ATSC 3.0 TV tuner (equivalently, set top boxcontrolling a TV) 256. The receiver 14 may be an Android®-based system.The receiver 14 alternatively may be implemented by a computerizedInternet enabled (“smart”) telephone, a tablet computer, a notebookcomputer, a wearable computerized device, and so on. Regardless, it isto be understood that the receiver 14 and/or other computers describedherein is configured to undertake present principles (e.g. communicatewith other devices to undertake present principles, execute the logicdescribed herein, and perform any other functions and/or operationsdescribed herein).

Accordingly, to undertake such principles the receiver 14 can beestablished by some or all of the components shown in FIG. 1. Forexample, the receiver 14 can include one or more displays 258 that maybe implemented by a high definition or ultra-high definition “4K” orhigher flat screen and that may or may not be touch-enabled forreceiving user input signals via touches on the display. The receiver 14may also include one or more speakers 260 for outputting audio inaccordance with present principles, and at least one additional inputdevice 262 such as, e.g., an audio receiver/microphone for, e.g.,entering audible commands to the receiver 14 to control the receiver 14.The example receiver 14 may further include one or more networkinterfaces 264 for communication over at least one network such as theInternet, a WAN, a LAN, a PAN etc. under control of one or moreprocessors 266. Thus, the interface 264 may be, without limitation, aWi-Fi transceiver, which is an example of a wireless computer networkinterface, such as but not limited to a mesh network transceiver. Theinterface 264 may be, without limitation, a Bluetooth® transceiver,Zigbee® transceiver, Infrared Data Association (IrDA) transceiver,Wireless USB transceiver, wired USB, wired LAN, Powerline or Multimediaover Coax Alliance (MoCA). It is to be understood that the processor 266controls the receiver 14 to undertake present principles, including theother elements of the receiver 14 described herein such as, forinstance, controlling the display 258 to present images thereon andreceiving input therefrom. Furthermore, note the network interface 264may be, e.g., a wired or wireless modem or router, or other appropriateinterface such as, e.g., a wireless telephony transceiver, or Wi-Fitransceiver as mentioned above, etc.

In addition to the foregoing, the receiver 14 may also include one ormore input ports 268 such as a high definition multimedia interface(HDMI) port or a USB port to physically connect (using a wiredconnection) to another CE device and/or a headphone port to connectheadphones to the receiver 14 for presentation of audio from thereceiver 14 to a user through the headphones. For example, the inputport 268 may be connected via wire or wirelessly to a cable or satellitesource of audio video content. Thus, the source may be a separate orintegrated set top box, or a satellite receiver. Or, the source may be agame console or disk player.

The receiver 14 may further include one or more computer memories 270such as disk-based or solid-state storage that are not transitorysignals, in some cases embodied in the chassis of the receiver asstandalone devices or as a personal video recording device (PVR) orvideo disk player either internal or external to the chassis of thereceiver for playing back audio video (AV) programs or as removablememory media. Also, in some embodiments, the receiver 14 can include aposition or location receiver 272 such as but not limited to a cellphonereceiver, global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver, and/or altimeterthat is configured to e.g. receive geographic position information fromat least one satellite or cellphone tower and provide the information tothe processor 266 and/or determine an altitude at which the receiver 14is disposed in conjunction with the processor 266. However, it is to beunderstood that that another suitable position receiver other than acellphone receiver, GPS receiver and/or altimeter may be used inaccordance with present principles to determine the location of thereceiver 14 in e.g. all three dimensions.

Continuing the description of the receiver 14, in some embodiments thereceiver 14 may include one or more cameras 274 that may include one ormore of a thermal imaging camera, a digital camera such as a webcam,and/or a camera integrated into the receiver 14 and controllable by theprocessor 266 to gather pictures/images and/or video in accordance withpresent principles. Also included on the receiver 14 may be a Bluetooth®transceiver 276 or other Near Field Communication (NFC) element forcommunication with other devices using Bluetooth® and/or NFC technology,respectively. An example NFC element can be a radio frequencyidentification (RFID) element.

Further still, the receiver 14 may include one or more auxiliary sensors278 (such as a motion sensor such as an accelerometer, gyroscope,cyclometer, or a magnetic sensor and combinations thereof), an infrared(IR) sensor for receiving IR commands from a remote control, an opticalsensor, a speed and/or cadence sensor, a gesture sensor (for sensinggesture commands) and so on providing input to the processor 266. An IRsensor 280 may be provided to receive commands from a wireless remotecontrol. A battery (not shown) may be provided for powering the receiver14.

The companion device 16 may incorporate some or all of the elementsshown in relation to the receiver 14 described above.

The methods described herein may be implemented as software instructionsexecuted by a processor, suitably configured application specificintegrated circuits (ASIC) or field programmable gate array (FPGA)modules, or any other convenient manner as would be appreciated by thoseskilled in those art. Where employed, the software instructions may beembodied in a non-transitory device such as a CD ROM or Flash drive. Thesoftware code instructions may alternatively be embodied in a transitoryarrangement such as a radio or optical signal, or via a download overthe Internet.

Now referring to FIG. 3, the OTA 12 and/or OTT 22 assembly may, for atleast some and preferably most or all of the receivers 14 in the digitaltelevision system, enter an emergency alert (also referred to herein asa reverse 911) routine at block 300 in which, at block 302, for eachreceiver the location of the receiver is identified, as well as certainuser information of the receiver. The location of the receiver may beidentified by causing the receiver to send its GPS location informationto the digital television system. Or, the location may be manually inputby a user. Or, the location may be obtained in other ways, such as byhaving the receiver triangulate its location using signals from multipletransmitters in the digital television system or in another system suchas base stations in a wireless telephony network in the event that thereceiver has a wireless telephony transceiver.

The user information, which may include demographic information, a cellphone number, and information pertaining to special needs of people inthe home in which the receiver is located may be obtained from thepurchaser of the receiver at the point of sale. Or, the cell phonenumber to be associated with the receiver for use described furtherbelow may be looked up by the broadcaster using a database thatcorrelates locations (in this case, the address corresponding to thelocation of the receiver) with cell phone numbers. Yet again, the userinformation may be input to the receiver by a user as described below inconnection with FIG. 5. Other techniques to gather the user information.

Proceeding to block 304, in the event of an emergency alert situationsuch as an approaching storm, detected possible earthquake, or othersituations, an emergency alert is generated by the digital televisionbroadcaster and tailored for at least some of the receivers 14 in thesystem using the respective location and user information of eachreceiver. Thus, a first receiver 14 presents first information in theemergency alert and a second receiver 14 presents second information inthe emergency alert different from the first information. Someinformation presented on one receiver is thus not presented on theother, and vice-versa.

Or, the first receiver may use the information directly to contact thesecond receiver to determine user presence. Once user location isdetermined, appropriate action can automatically take place whetherfinding evacuation routes, hotel reservations, etc. are to be madeavailable.

Examples of tailoring this information include but are not limited to anamount of time before a threat subject of the emergency alert is lifethreatening at the receiver location, directions to a shelter nearestthe receiver location, and an automatic booking of a user into a hotelnearest the receiver location along with a notification thereof.

In the event of a possibility that no one is viewing the receiver todetect the emergency alert as might be indicated by, e.g., lack of anacknowledgement input to the receiver within a period of time followingbroadcast of the alert, the logic may move to block 306. At block 306the phone number associated with the receiver as obtained at block 302may be called with a recorded audible alert that may contain some or allof the information discussed herein in audible form.

FIG. 4 illustrates further. A UI 400 may be presented on a display ofthe receiver as shown in which an identification 402 of the nature ofthe alert is resented, in the example shown, a tornado. If the name of auser associated with the receiver is known, the name may appear in thealert 402.

In examples, an advisory 404 may be presented indicating a future timeat which the event that is subject to the alert is expected to becomelife threatening at the location of the receiver. For example, theadvisory 404 may indicate that the tornado will arrive in one hour.Similar advisories may be presented for emergencies such as wildfires,etc.

Also, an advisory 406 may be presented indicating the location ofnearest shelter to the location of the receiver that people can seek.This location may be obtained using a database of shelters and theirlocations and then selecting the shelter closest to the location of thereceiver. In some cases, the closest shelter may not be designated as“safe” for the particular emergency, such as a tornado, in which casethe indicated shelter is the closest safe (e.g., tornado-hardened)shelter to the receiver. A selector 408 may be presented and may beselectable using, e.g., a remote control (RC) to cause the display topresent a map showing the route from the receiver location to theshelter.

Also, the emergency alert system may access a database of lodgings andautomatically book a room at a lodging nearby the location of thereceiver at the closest location determined to be safe from theemergency, and a notification 410 of this may be presented on thedisplay. An acknowledgement selector 412 may be presented and may beselectable using, e.g., the RC to enable a viewer of the receiver totransmit an acknowledgement of having seen the UI 400 to the digitaltelevision system so that the system can dispense with the phone call atblock 306 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 illustrates a UI 500 that may be presented on the receiverdisplay to enable gathering the user information discussed above inrelation to block 302 in FIG. 3. An advisory 502 may be presentedindicating the location of the receiver as best identified by thedigital television using example techniques described herein. When thereceiver reports its location in terms of GPS coordinates ortriangulated latitude and longitude coordinates, the digital televisionsystem may access a map to correlate the location to a street address asindicated in FIG. 5, which typically is more understandable to the user.

A selector 504 may be presented for the user to confirm the locationshown at 502. If the location is incorrect the user may input thecorrect address in a filed 506. Similarly, the user's phone number to becalled in the event that block 306 in FIG. 3 requires execution may bepresented at 508, and the user may confirm this number by selecting aconfirm selector 510. If the number is incorrect the user may input thecorrect number in a field 512. The user may input any special needs ofpersons in the household at block 514, e.g., that one of the occupantsof the location is blind, or elderly, etc.

FIG. 6 illustrates a UI 600 that may be presented on a receiver such asan ATSC 3.0 TV. The UI 600 may present a list 602 of events that a usercan select to be notified of.

This may be implemented using filter codes as described in ATSC standard“Signaling, Delivery, Synchronization, and Error Protection (A/331)”that can be set up to use content codes such as entertainmentidentification registry (EIDR) codes which trigger what content isavailable to consumers. The filter codes, as indicated in thenon-limiting example of FIG. 6, may include amber alerts, schoolclosings, traffic hazards, tornados, inclement weather, fires, etc.

Present principles recognize that in emergencies, panic is a naturalreaction and so it would be advantageous to use an ATSC 3.0 receiver tohelp remove panic or anxiety so that people can remain calm and focus onwhat needs to be done. FIG. 7 provides illustration.

Commencing at block 700, a receiver in response to an emergency alert(either pre-programmed or based on receiving an alert selected from,e.g., FIG. 6) automatically may search for nearby hotel rooms for theuser and may automatically secure a booking into an available room.Also, at block 702 the receiver may automatically send an electronic ortelephonic or other message to an emergency authority such as the localconstabulary indicating the location of one or more users as indicatedby, e.g., motion detectors in the dwelling in which the receiver islocated, face recognition based on time-stamped images rendered by acamera on the receiver, etc. As another example, upon receipt of anemergency alert the receiver, knowing the phone number(s) as may beinput using FIG. 5, may “ping” the mobile device(s) of the user(s) for alocation report, and relay the location(s) to the emergency authority.

Block 704 indicates that the receiver may obtain evacuation maps inresponse to an emergency alert and send the map(s) to the mobiledevice(s) or use artificial intelligence to inform users with advancedwarning of coming danger. The alerts can be sent to other devices(phones) the user has setup/informed to the ATSC 3.0 receiver allowinginformation to flow even if the user is not in the immediate area (suchas on vacation). Block 706 indicates that the receiver further mayprompt a user to check on others, such as neighbors, to check on safetyor other matters, and to obtain additional information, e.g., bypresenting a link the user can select for additional information.

In a non-limiting example ATSC:A/331:2019 section A.3.3.2.3 filter codesare used in extensions to fast data transfer (FDT)-Instance elementsalong with the broadcaster emergency information to trigger a process(including AI) of taking next steps for consumer safety. Existing onlineservices and user data may be used to provide options for a consumer ashe faces emergencies.

It will be appreciated that whilst present principals have beendescribed with reference to some example embodiments, these are notintended to be limiting, and that various alternative arrangements maybe used to implement the subject matter claimed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A digital television apparatus comprising: atleast one transmitter assembly comprising: at least one processorprogrammed with instructions to: access respective location informationfor respective first and second receivers indicating respective firstand second locations; broadcast an emergency alert altered at least inpart with the location information such that the first receiver presentsfirst information in the emergency alert and the second receiverpresents second information in the emergency alert different from thefirst information.
 2. The digital television apparatus of claim 1,comprising the first and second receivers, the first and secondreceivers configured with circuitry to communicate with each other. 3.The digital television apparatus of claim 1, wherein the digitaltelevision system comprises an advanced television systems committee(ATSC) 3.0 system.
 4. The digital television apparatus of claim 1,wherein the first receiver does not present the second information. 5.The digital television apparatus of claim 1, wherein the firstinformation comprises an amount of time before a threat subject of theemergency alert is life threatening at the first location.
 6. Thedigital television apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first informationcomprises an identification and directions to a shelter nearest thefirst location.
 7. The digital television apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe first information comprises notification of an automatic booking ofa user into a hotel nearest the first location.
 8. The digitaltelevision apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions are executableto: responsive to not receiving, within a period, an acknowledgement ofthe emergency alert from the first receiver, access informationassociated with the first receiver to identify a phone number and callthe phone number.
 9. A digital television system comprising: digitaltelevision transmitter equipment configured with instructions to:generate a first emergency alert tailored to a first location in anemergency alert coverage area, the first emergency alert indicating afirst emergency; generate a second emergency alert tailored to a secondlocation in the emergency alert coverage area, the second emergencyalert indicating the first emergency and containing informationdifferent from information in the first emergency alert; transmit thefirst emergency alert to a first receiver at the first location; andtransmit the second emergency alert to a second receiver at the secondlocation.
 10. The digital television system of claim 9, comprising thefirst and second receivers.
 11. The digital television system of claim9, wherein the transmitter equipment comprises an over the air (OTA)digital television content source and an over the top (OTT) digitaltelevision content source.
 12. The digital television system of claim 9,wherein the digital television system comprises an advanced televisionsystems committee (ATSC) 3.0 system.
 13. The digital television of claim9, wherein the first emergency alert comprises an amount of time beforea threat subject of the first emergency alert is life threatening at thefirst location.
 14. The digital television of claim 9, wherein the firstemergency alert comprises an identification and directions to a shelternearest the first location.
 15. The digital television of claim 9,wherein the first emergency alert comprises notification of an automaticbooking of a user into a hotel nearest the first location.
 16. Thedigital television of claim 9, wherein the transmitter equipment isconfigured to: responsive to not receiving, within a period, anacknowledgement of the first emergency alert from the first receiver,access information associated with the first receiver to identify aphone number and call the phone number.
 17. In a digital televisionsystem, a method comprising: transmitting a first alert of a firstemergency to a first receiver, the first alert containing informationidentified at least in part based on a first location associated withthe first receiver; and transmitting a second alert of the firstemergency to a second receiver, the second alert containing informationidentified at least in part based on a second location associated withthe second receiver.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the digitaltelevision system comprises an advanced television systems committee(ATSC) 3.0 system.
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein the first alertcomprises one or more of: an amount of time before a threat subject ofthe first emergency alert is life threatening at the first location,directions to a shelter nearest the first location, notification of anautomatic booking of a user into a hotel nearest the first location. 20.The method of claim 17, comprising: responsive to not receiving, withina period, an acknowledgement of the first alert from the first receiver,accessing information associated with the first receiver to identify aphone number and calling the phone number.